Terms of Use

Shriver Center Website Terms of Use
Effective Date: August 2017

These terms and conditions (“Terms of Service”) are a contract between users (“you”) and the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law (“Shriver Center,” “we” or “us”) and apply to the website located at http://povertylaw.org/ and any other webpages owned and operated by us that link back to or otherwise display these Terms of Service (collectively, the “Services”).

These Terms of Service govern your use of and access to the Services. By accessing or using the Services, you accept and agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you do not agree with the Terms of Service, you must discontinue your use of the Services.

Modifications to the Terms of Service

The Shriver Center may make changes to these Terms of Service from time to time. When these changes are made, we will make a new version of the Terms of Service available on the Services. Revised terms and conditions will apply to the access or use of the Services from the date of publication of the revised Terms of Service on the Services. Please check this page regularly to ensure that you are familiar with the current version of the Terms of Service. By your continued use of the Services after the publication of revised Terms of Service, you accept and agree to the updated terms and conditions.

Acceptable Use

You agree to use the Services only for the purposes for which they have been designed. You will comply with these Terms of Service and all applicable local, state, national and international laws, rules and regulations, and will not engage in, encourage or promote any activity that violates these Terms of Service.

Restrictions on Use

By accessing or otherwise using the Services, you agree that you will not, under any circumstances:

use the Services for any unlawful purpose or for the promotion of illegal activities;

attempt to interfere in any way with the Services’ networks or network security or attempt to use the Services to gain unauthorized access to any other computer system;

interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper functioning of the Services;

make any automated use of the Services, or take any action that we deem to impose or to potentially impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our servers or network infrastructure;

bypass any measures we take to restrict access to the Services or use any software, technology or device to scrape, spider or crawl the Services or harvest or manipulate data;

use the Services to post, link to or otherwise distribute any offensive material.

If we believe you are using or attempting to use the Services in breach of any one of these restrictions, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Services (or any portion thereof).

Proprietary Rights

The Shriver Center’s Proprietary Rights

The Services are the exclusive property of and owned by the Shriver Center. The Services contain and are protected by intellectual property rights, including copyrights, trademarks, logos and service marks owned by the Shriver Center or third parties that have licensed their materials or provided services to the Shriver Center. Except as expressly authorized by the Shriver Center, either in these Terms of Service or otherwise, you agree not to, and not to permit anyone else to, modify, rent, lease, loan, sell, distribute, license, copy, reproduce, republish, display, transmit, edit, adapt, create derivative works of or otherwise make unauthorized use of any such intellectual property. You agree that you shall not remove, obscure, modify or alter any proprietary notices (including copyright and trademark notices) that may be affixed or contained within the Services. You further agree not to reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise attempt to extract or discover the source code of the Services or any part thereof, except and only to the extent that such activity is expressly permitted by applicable law notwithstanding this limitation.

Limited License

As a part of the Services, articles, resources and other scholarship (the “Content”) are available for you to read and to download. You acknowledge and agree that, as between you and the Shriver Center, the Content will remain the property of the Shriver Center. The Shriver Center hereby grants you a limited, non-exclusive license to copy, reprint, publish, reproduce, distribute or otherwise display Content for personal use or otherwise, on the following conditions: (i) you must attribute the Content to the Shriver Center and the authors of the Content; (ii) any Content that you reprint or otherwise reproduce must be displayed with the following notice, appropriately tailored to the circumstance, “This [material and/or article] was [published, created or made available] by the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law. (http://povertylaw.org/);” and (iii) any reproduction or display of the Content must be in the form originally downloaded from the Services, without any editorial changes to the Content, except as allowed by express written permission from the Shriver Center. Clause (iii) of the preceding sentence does not restrict excerpting portions of content in a manner that does not alter the editorial intent. If you breach, or permit another person to breach, any terms of this provision, we reserve the right to revoke the license granted herein and require that you immediately cease your use or distribution of any Content.

Privacy Notice

Your privacy is important to us. You can learn how we handle your information when you use the Services by reading our Privacy Policy, located at http://povertylaw.org/privacypolicy. We encourage you to become familiar with the Privacy Policy because, by using the Services, you consent to the collection, use, disclosure and other handling of your information consistent with that Policy.

User Information

In these Terms of Service, your “User Information” means any material that you submit to us through your use of the Services for whatever purpose. You agree to provide only User Information that is accurate and you agree to keep your User Information current.

Third Party Content

The Services may provide links to other websites and resources on the Internet that are not controlled by Shriver (“Third Party Content”). You acknowledge that the Third Party Content is provided for your convenience only. You acknowledge and agree that the Shriver Center does not endorse and is not responsible or liable for any content, advertising, products or other materials on or available through Third Party Content. You acknowledge that use of Third Party Content is strictly at your own risk, including, but not limited to, any risks associated with destructive viruses, and that the Shriver Center makes no warranties, express, statutory or implied, with respect to such Third Party Content. These Terms of Service do not govern your use of any Third Party Content and you are responsible for reviewing and abiding by the terms and conditions of use and the privacy statements of the Third Party Content.

Notice of Copyright Infringement

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 provides recourse for copyright owners who believe that material posted on Internet sites infringes their rights under U.S. copyright law. If you believe in good faith that items, information or other materials appearing on the Services infringe your copyright, please send us a notice containing the following information:

A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works.

Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activities and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information sufficient to permit us to locate the material.

A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.

A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

Please submit this notice to the Shriver Center at info@povertylaw.org.

Disclaimers

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, THE SERVICES, ACCESS TO THE SERVICES, AND ALL RELATED CONTENT, SERVICES AND INFORMATION ARE PROVIDED ON AN “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” BASIS, WITHOUT ANY REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, OR ANY GUARANTY OR ASSURANCE THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR USE, OR THAT ALL INFORMATION, CONTENT, MATERIALS, PRODUCTS, FEATURES, FUNCTIONS OR OPERATIONS WILL BE AVAILABLE OR PERFORM AS DESCRIBED. SHRIVER DOES NOT WARRANT THAT ANY PART OF THE SERVICES WILL OPERATE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE OR THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED. YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK.

THE SHRIVER CENTER DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE WEBSITE, INFORMATION, CONTENT, MATERIALS, PRODUCTS OR OTHER SERVICES INCLUDED ON OR OTHERWISE MADE AVAILABLE TO YOU THROUGH THE SERVICES ARE FREE OF VIRUSES, MALICIOUS CODE OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY THE LAW, THE SHRIVER CENTER EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY, CONTENT, AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION, PRODUCTS, SERVICES, PRIVACY OR SECURITY PRACTICES OR INFORMATION FOUND ON THIRD PARTY SITES OR APPS THAT LINK TO OR FROM THE SERVICES. SHRIVER CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MATERIAL CONTAINED ON THIRD PARTY APPS OR SITES. Any questions or complaints or claims related to any product or service found on a third party app or site should be directed to the appropriate third party.

Without limiting the foregoing, we are not responsible or liable for the accuracy, usefulness, timeliness or availability of any information, opinion, advice or statement transmitted or made available via the Services, including the Content, and are not responsible or liable for any errors or omissions in that information. You understand, acknowledge and agree that you are assuming the entire risk as to the quality, accuracy, performance, timeliness, adequacy, completeness, authenticity, security and validity of any and all Content, features and functions of the Services. You further understand, acknowledge and agree that the Services, including the Content, are offered for informational and educational purposes only and are not meant as a substitute for independent professional legal judgment or the advice of a qualified legal professional.

Limitation of Liability

WITHIN THE LIMITS ALLOWED BY APPLICABLE LAW, YOU EXPRESSLY ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT YOU ASSUME FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES AND UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL THE SHRIVER CENTER, ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, CONTRIBUTORS OR AFFILIATES BE LIABLE FOR CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES OR LOST PROFITS, WHETHER FORESEEABLE OR UNFORESEEABLE, BASED ON CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATED TO THE SERVICES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS, DAMAGE, LOSS OR THEFT OF YOUR DATA, CLAIMS FOR LOSS OF GOOD WILL, USE OF OR RELIANCE ON THE SERVICES, STOPPAGE OF OTHER WORK OR DAMAGE CAUSED TO DEVICES OR PROGRAMS FROM ANY VIRUS OR OTHER HARMFUL SOFTWARE), ARISING OUT OF BREACH OR FAILURE OF EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY, BREACH OF CONTRACT, MISREPRESENTATION, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY IN TORT OR OTHERWISE. IN THE EVENT OF ANY PROBLEM WITH THE SERVICES, YOU AGREE THAT YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY IS TO CEASE USING THE SERVICES. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL THE SHRIVER CENTER BE LIABLE IN ANY WAY FOR YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS IN THE CONTENT, ANY INFRINGEMENT OF THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS OR OTHER RIGHTS OF THIRD PARTIES, OR FOR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE OF ANY KIND INCURRED AS A RESULT OF, OR RELATED TO, THE USE OF THE SERVICES. THE LIMITATIONS, EXCLUSIONS AND DISCLAIMERS SET FORTH IN THIS SECTION WILL NOT APPLY ONLY IF AND TO THE EXTENT THAT THE LAW OR A COURT OF COMPETENT JURISDICTION REQUIRES LIABILITY UNDER APPLICABLE LAW BEYOND AND DESPITE THESE LIMITATIONS, EXCLUSIONS AND DISCLAIMERS.

Indemnification

To the maximum extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless the Shriver Center, its officers, directors, employees, agents, contributors and affiliates (the “Indemnitees”) from and against all third party complaints, charges, claims, losses, expenses, damages, costs, liabilities and expenses (including, but not limited to, reasonable attorney fees) due to, arising out of, or relating in any way to: (i) your access to or use of the Services; (ii) your use, distribution or display of any Content; and (iii) your breach of these Terms of Service, in each case unless caused by such Indemnitee’s willful misconduct.

Choice of Law and Venue

These Terms of Service are governed by the laws of the State of Illinois. Any action against the Shriver Center must be brought in Chicago, Illinois. You agree that these Terms of Service are entered into between you and the Shriver Center in the State of Illinois, United States of America and are performed within the State of Illinois. You agree that these Terms of Service and any and all disputes, claims and controversies arising out of or relating to your use of the Services shall be governed and construed exclusively in accordance with the laws of the State of Illinois, exclusive of its choice of law or conflict of laws provisions. In any claim or action by you directly or indirectly arising under these Terms of Service or related to the Services, you irrevocably agree to submit to the exclusive personal jurisdiction of the state or federal courts in or servicing Chicago, Illinois. You waive any jurisdictional, venue or inconvenient forum objections to such court. Use of the Services is unauthorized in any jurisdiction that does not give effect to these Terms of Service.

Severability

If a portion of these Terms of Service is determined to be unlawful, void or unenforceable, it will not affect the enforceability of the remaining provisions and the remaining provisions will continue in effect. If any unlawful and/or unenforceable provision would be lawful or enforceable if part of it were deleted, that part will be deemed to be deleted, and the rest of the provision will continue in effect.

Termination

These Terms of Service are effective unless and until terminated by either you or the Shriver Center. You may terminate these Terms of Service at any time, provided that you discontinue any further use of the Services. We also may terminate these Terms of Service, in our sole discretion, at any time and may do so immediately and without notice, and accordingly deny you access to the Services.

Entire Agreement

These Terms of Service, together with the Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Shriver in relation to your use of the Services and supersede and replace all prior arrangements and agreements relating thereto.

Miscellaneous

Headings used in these Terms of Service are for reference purposes only and in no way define or limit the scope of the section. The following provisions survive the expiration or termination of these Terms: Proprietary Rights; User Information; Third Party Content; Limitation of Liability; Indemnity; Choice of Law and Venue; and Miscellaneous.

How to Contact Us

If you have any questions or comments about these Terms of Service, you may contact us in the following ways: